A mental health nurse practitioner assists and cares for mental health patients, or those who suffer from conditions such as bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. Mental health nurse practitioners are also called psychiatric nurse practitioners, or simply psychiatric nurses.
This career path for this profession is a lot longer than most other nursing specializations. However, when you complete all of the requirements you need to become specialized as a mental health nurse the benefits and compensation make all the effort worth it. You can get started on this exciting and engaging career by enrolling in an accredited online nursing school and making sure that your grades are excellent so you'll be competitive from the start.
Here are the steps you'll need to take if you want to know how to become a mental health nurse practitioner:
- Know the job duties. A psychiatric nurse practitioner assesses patients, helps administer medication and keeps systematic patients’ records. Apart from overseeing the mental health care of patients, they are also responsible for ensuring the physical health and wellbeing of their patients.
- Know what it takes to succeed in this career. This is a very high needs job as the patients are very emotionally needy, sometimes needing to be physically restrained. Nurse practitioners are often on call hours that doctors are not, and should have the ability to be reached at all hours, and days of the week. Stability in your personal life is a must as well. You should also have a genuine interest in working with people and looking out for their needs.
- Start early. Starting as early as high school is a good way to prepare yourself to work in the nursing profession. Taking subjects and electives in the sciences, such as biology, chemistry, and anatomy. Make sure that you get outstanding overall grades and do well on your SATs or ACT tests. Competition will be fierce to get into a good school with a strong nursing program.
- Be an outstanding student. Gain entrance into an excellent program as soon as you finish the required prerequisites after graduating high school. You must take courses that are outlined in each program as prerequisites for admission. These are generally English, Math, Biology, and Anatomy and Physiology. Making a B or better in these programs will ensure you are picked first for admission rather than placed on a waiting list.
- Acquire a Bachelor's of Science in nursing degree. The best route toward this profession is through a four-year Bachelor's of Science in Nursing degree. It is also possible to take a two-year associate's degree in nursing course to become a Registered Nurse. Once you have obtained your nursing degree you can then take additional classes to earn a bachelor’s degree.
- Take the licensing exam. To practice the nursing profession, you should take and pass the licensing exams in your region. In the United States, this is the NCLEX-RN.
- Apply for mental health nurse jobs. Gaining nurse training experience is essential to the nursing profession, so you could spend about one to two years as a general nurse, focusing on the intensive or critical care units of hospitals. You will also need to take continuing education credits while working to maintain your licensure. These can be obtained through your job, or through websites such as the Nurse CEU website.
- Obtain a master’s degree in nursing. Earning a master’s degree in nursing will now bring you one step closer to becoming a nurse practitioner. Some schools offer night or online classes for you to take while you work in a facility related to psychiatric care.
- Get a doctorate degree. Nowadays, in order to become a nurse practitioner you must obtain a doctorate degree in nursing. Nurses who are in a nurse practitioner program that is just a master’s degree prior to this law being passed are grandfathered in and do not need to obtain a doctorate. However, those who are just entering into programs will be required to obtain a doctorate degree.
When you become a mental health nurse practitioner it means specializing in mental health issues. Focusing your clinical hours and applying for an internship in a mental health facility is the step you will need to take to do this. Mental health nursing jobs are very rewarding, and often lead to lifelong relationships. You help people become healthy mentally and this is a task that is never forgotten and always remembered. An excellent source of information for up and coming mental health nurse practitioners is American Psychiatric Nurses Association.
As of 2010 the job outlook for psychiatric nurse practitioners is excellent. The demand for jobs is increasing due to dementia cases in the elderly rising and of course other mental illness such as depression, that need to be treated. Mental health nurse practitioners do well earning an expected salary of around $90,000-120,000 depending on the facility. Privately owned inpatient facilities generally pay higher than government run facilities.